Chapter 22: Chapter 22
Darius could make stuff like fried eggs, boiled eggs, boiled rice, and fry bacon or sausages, but that was truly entry-level stuff. His knowledge regarding cooking pretty much ended there, since he had usually left that task to either his personal chef or had gone out to eat at some fancy restaurant.
Darius scratched his head and moved away from the tree he had rested under. He made sure to pick up some dry wood from the area around its roots and bark, gathering them into a pile.
He found some stones and formed a ring out of them. He then dug out the center of it with his iron dagger and removed the grass, leaving only the bare earth. Fatigued once again, he took another short break before tossing the dry wood in the middle.
Darius then cast an Ember spell onto the wood, which instantly caught fire, saving him from actually getting the wood to light up, arguably the hardest part of creating a cooking fire. Magic certainly made one's life easier.
Once the fire reached a suitable level, Darius created a spit over it with a bunch of longer and thicker branches he had found. Now came another hard part…
Darius fetched sand from the earth around and concentrated.
[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of kosher salt? This will cost 0.001 Conversion Points.]
Darius made the conversion. The dark brown sand became a pristine white mineral that every human who ate food worshiped, the almighty salt. Without this divine sediment, most food would taste like garbage.
One could make food without fancy spices by just using salt and still end up with a gourmet-level meal, whereas making a meal only using fancy spices could easily make good food taste like crap.
Darius held up the blessed salt and praised the gods in heaven that this sediment existed in Faust before placing a majority of it into his Inventory, saving only a smattering of it for his current meal.
In his left, he had spawned one of the cuts from the Grey Bear's meat. It was still as bloody and taut as it had been when Darius had cut it out, making him frown. However, he simply pierced it horizontally with a shaved and washed branch with enough thickness to hold the weight.
The moment the meat came over the fire, the blood dripped down and made a sizzling sound as it was quickly burnt up. Unsurprisingly, fire made by magic was far more potent than fire made from rubbing two sticks together really fast.
Darius carefully spread the salt over the meat after a lot more of the blood had drained away, using his hands to smear it over the fire. He should have probably done this before putting it on the spit, but he had dreaded the idea of salt mixed in with bloody meat.
After doing this, he carefully stirred the meat over the fire slowly, but his eyes weren't actually on the ingredient, instead they were fixed on his notifications, eagerly waiting for the one that would grant him the knowledge of cooking.
It took 5 minutes of continuous rotation of the meat for the desired result to appear.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Cooking!]
[Cooking - Level 1 Skill
Cost: 2 Stamina per minute
Description: Prepare many dishes with a seasoned hand. The quality of all cooked meals is raised by 5%.]
Immediately, Darius stopped what he was doing as he felt the knowledge of the fundamentals of cooking assimilate with his mind. It was almost as if he had been a basic cook for years and had simply forgotten how to perform the vocation temporarily.
Once this was done, he tossed what he had been making to the side as he stood up. Darius wanted a proper meal, not whatever abomination would have come out of his amateurish attempt just now. He was aware that he could not get a meal like those he had enjoyed on Earth here unless he used his Conversion Points, but that would be wasteful.
He would have to be smart about his life in Faust and find a compromise between what was acceptable for his palate and what would be filling enough to carry him until he encountered civilization.
Darius smiled when an idea came to mind.
He took out his iron dagger and cut some sticks of wood into thinner versions with a flat end at the bottom and a pointed end at the top. After that, he cut the meat of the Grey Bear into smaller cubical shapes.
Darius walked over to a bush nearby and plucked some leaves.
[Would you like to change a variegated leaf into a fresh onion? This will cost 0.003 Conversion Points.]
Darius made the change. The leaf expanded and became a ripe, pink onion that looked freshly harvested. He wasted no time in shaving off its skin and cutting it into quarters as well, then taking the smallest sections of each quarter.
After carefully washing it using his Pure Water and then coating the meat with a healthy amount of salt, he was ready to assemble his meal: khebabs.
That's right, it was the best option Darius could come up with given his limited ingredients, Conversion Points, and acceptable palate. Luckily, onions existed in this world too, but he would need to add some more stuff before he could describe his work as done.
Darius assembled the khebab traditionally. One cut of meat, one onion, another cut of meat, another onion, and so on until there were five cubes of meat with four onion slices between them.
Darius had carved five small branches into khebab sticks, so he repeated the assembly for the others. Now that he had done this, he placed the sticks at an angle over the fire, sticking their butt end firmly into the earth.
He then poured some of his water into his palm.
[Would you like to change a handful of Pure Water into a handful of cooking oil? This will cost 0.005 Conversion Points.]
Darius smeared the oil over the khebabs gently and firmly, making sure to give them a nice coating of it. Sighing with relief, he washed his hand with the rest of his water thoroughly before creating some more of it.
With almost every done, Darius created his last ingredient that would perfect the flavor.
[Would you like to change the handful of sand into a handful of suya spice? This will cost 0.0012 Conversion Points.]
Sprinkling the reddish spice over the glazed khebabs that had been turned over about 3 times, Darius extracted them from the fire and inspected them.
[Sub-Saharan khebab - Consumable
Durability: 1/1
Description: A unique meat skewer that tastes as good as its smells. Can restore up to 2 points of Stamina and Health out of combat.]
Chapter 23: Chapter 23
Darius moved under the bough of the tree and placed his back against it once more. He ate the khebab while drinking his Pure Water leisurely. He had to admit, the hot meat combined with the peppery spice was lovely.
Trying to eat this without water nearby would have been asking for a world of hurt, but with the lovely Pure Water that was cool and smoother than typical drinking water from Earth, Darius was more than fine.
He had expected the bear meat to taste gamey or hard to chew since he normally ate more... 'tamed' sorts of flesh from animals, but he was positively surprised to find that it tasted fine.
Whether it was a unique property of the meat itself, or the benefits of his Skinning, Butchery, and Cooking skills, he did not know but resolved to explore at some point in the future.
Now that he had some food in his belly, Darius patted his bum and rose to his feet. He was a bit bothered by the fact that his 'default' noble attire was practically in tatters now and he himself didn't smell all that good, but what could he do?
He could only trudge onward like that, the scorching sun beating down on his lightly tanned skin as the sweat continually poured out from his pores, further soaking his poor clothes.
Without the ability to create water, Darius would never have made it to his destination. Even though a normal person would likely have increased their Endurance stat with such an arduous task, Darius could not even gain that as a consolation.
Caesar had made it perfectly clear in his explanation, the existence of the Supreme System's stat points meant that his growth was controlled solely by them. If he wanted to become stronger, faster, or smarter, he was forced to invest his Ability Points.
Still, it was a fair tradeoff. He might have lost the ability to organically grow like others, but he could perfectly grow himself as much as he wished artificially with no drawbacks, provided he had gathered the necessary EXP first of course. Why would he complain about such a boon?
Darius checked the main map and noticed that there was a river nearby that he would have to cross. After it, he would be merely 23km from his destination. While such a distance was easily traversed by car, on foot it was at least a day's journey if not more.
He contemplated using up his Short Warp scroll, but the thought of having to use 3 Conversion Points to create a new one made him sigh and continue moving on foot.
At least the world had taken pity on him or perhaps it was just his above-average Luck stat working, whatever the case no predators had disturbed him until he reached the banks of the river.
It was a large and clear river, being about 300 meters in width. As for the length, Darius could only tell with the help of the main map that it crossed over from the dark area of the map into another dark area, practically running through the entire Andrato Kingdom.
It was labeled as the Lost River on the map. Along with that, Darius read in the Database that the river had some cultural significance to the Andrato Kingdom and possibly other neighboring kingdoms or empires.
'Hm, it must be something like this world's Nile or Amazon River, then?'
Darius first checked the water only to find out that it was startlingly clear. There were a few strangely colored fish swimming about within, while many animals, predators, and prey alike, peacefully drank or bathed within.
It was as if the river had a special significance to animals, to the point where they'd put aside their issues to drink and bathe, making it hard to believe that one party usually killed the other for a living.
Darius walked over to a free spot and gazed into the water before he Analyzed it.
[Unique Water - Liquid
Durability: ?/?
Description: Water from a source unknown to any man, this unique flow has the ability to cleanse the dirt from anything placed within and dissolve it into beneficial nutrients. However, consumption over long periods of time can corrode the internals of any living organism.]
Darius whistled quietly. So this was basically the best bathing and washing water around, but as drinking water, it was no better than poison. Maybe the humans of this world - as well as other sapient species - had realized this over the years, but the animals certainly hadn't looking at how they were drinking from it happily.
Or maybe they had adapted to it over time? Perhaps the time needed to corrode their internals matched their natural life span in the first place.
Darius stopped thinking about it too deeply. He carefully removed his clothes until he was naked and took them with him into the water. It was cool and refreshing, but warm enough that he didn't freeze up thanks to the sun hanging in the sky.
Darius focused on clumsily washing his clothes by hand for a bit before he simply stretched them out in the water and let the current pass through them trusting in the water's effect.
As could be expected…
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Washing!]
[Washing - Level 1 Skill
Cost: 2 Stamina per minute
Description: Clean clothes, property, or various items without leaving a stain. The quality of all washed items is raised by 5%.]
Darius sighed. This system and its creator were truly evil. A fool who got excited by the ease of learning skills and wanted to expand their skill set might have fallen into the trap of wasting his precious skill points on useless skills.
The fellow in question would then become the bitch of the system, begging for skill points and doing anything for them once they had wasted them all. Now that Darius considered it, such an end should truly be amusing for a deity, displaying the typical foolishness of mortals.
However, he was not one of those fools. To him, these skills were nifty gimmicks that he only used in special situations. Once he reached society, he would find specialists to handle all this stuff, allowing him to focus on his own pursuits.
After washing up for a few minutes, Darius exited the pool and shook his clothes harshly in order to clear the water in them. Obviously, this was not enough to dry them, so he made another fire similar to the one before and hung his clothes over them, hoping the heat would dry them faster.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
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